Now that Gerda was here, she desperately wanted to know why Bulda had called her here and asked her not to tell her family. "Tell me, what knowledge do you possess that is so dangerous, it has to be kept secret from my family?" she asked Bulda. Bulda stepped closer to Gerda and sternly said, "It relates to a prophecy; a vision I received about Elsa. A dark fate awaits her unless she gets help! That is why I'm wary about telling people, including Anna, about this. Anna has a lot on her plate already, and I'm not sure she could handle hearing what I have to say." Gerda was all tense from anticipation. "Go on and explain," said Gerda. "It's a long story," said Bulda, with a look of excitement growing in her eyes. "Hang on! We will begin. When the story is done you shall know a great deal more than you do now." Bulda moved her arms, causing what appeared to be bright colorful mist to form shapes in the air.
"It began with a wicked rock troll. His name was Malchus. Even though he had the form of a troll, he was not exactly a troll; some say he was the devil himself, who had temporarily taken on a mortal form. And he forged a dagger. A wicked thing specifically designed to steal magic from the spirits of the enchanted forest. He lured them over to him and stole their magic. But the dagger only had the power to steal certain types of magic from the spirits, namely ice magic. The dagger now held within it powerful ice magic."
"Using the dagger, he was able to create an army of snowmen for himself in order to dominate the world. Nation upon nation soon fell to him, and for a time all seemed lost." Gerda's eyes widened in excitement while Bulda told this story to her.
"One day, Malchus truly entered a fit of madness, more so than he ever had before. He wanted to use the dagger to freeze the world in an eternal winter, and that is what he did. He used the dagger to cast a spell that would freeze everything. Frost, wind, and snow, spread from the dagger and began to spread across the world. Soon the entire world would be covered in ice and snow. But there was one thing Malchus didn't count on to stop him. His nephew, Zech, had grown weary of Malchus's plan to freeze the world. 'Uncle, are you sure you want to do this?' Zech asked him. But Malchus would not listen. When Malchus's back was turned, Zech took out a knife and stabbed him to death. Upon Malchus's death, the spell he had cast upon the world broke. His army of snowmen stopped moving and crumbled away, and the cold weather quickly faded away. Zech picked up Malchus's dagger and hid it away, since he didn't know how to destroy it. He drew a map so that he alone would be able to find it."
"So if we find Zech, we'll be able to find the dagger," remarked Gerda, a plan forming in her mind. "Yes, but Zech would be dead by now," said Bulda. "No one knows where he is buried, but there are rumors that he is buried not far from Arendelle."
"But why all this secrecy? Why should I not bring my family here as well?"
There was a tense look on Bulda's face, and Bulda's hands began to tremble. "I'm getting to it," said Bulda. "You see, there is another way for the spirits to obtain some semblance of their former power." "But that's great news," exclaimed Gerda, shaking with excitement. "Surely nothing to be secretive about!" "Let me finish," said Bulda with a frown. "The spirits can no longer generate any ice magic directly on their own, but they can pass ice magic onto a human conduit. Elsa is the vessel for their power." "But I have ice magic too," questioned Gerda, scratching her head. "Yes, but Elsa's the real deal," explained Bulda. "Her magic can do so many things that you cannot. The point is, there is a way for the spirits to obtain some semblance of their former power. There is a way for them to take Elsa's power for themselves, and regain their ability to generate ice magic directly on their own. But it involves a sacrifice. The spirits must take her life, for without her ice magic, Elsa will freeze and soon die. Something like this happened before. The spirits stripped her of her powers, leaving her frozen, but they changed their minds and restored Elsa's powers when Anna destroyed the dam. If Anna hadn't acted in time, Elsa would have been frozen forever. I've had a vision of the spirits taking Elsa's powers again. In my vision, the spirits stripped Elsa of her powers, leaving her permanently frozen like a sculpture made of ice. It won't be long now. In a month it may be too late. Elsa's only hope is for someone to divide the Eternal Dagger amongst the 4 spirits."
Gerda now understood why Bulda had been so secretive. "But what did Bulda mean when she said that someone must divide the dagger amongst the 4 spirits?" she wondered. She took out her watch and looked at the time. It was getting late. Quickly, Gerda hopped on Bae. One of the younger trolls said to her, "Please, Gerda, show us your magic!" "My magic really isn't that powerful," Gerda quickly said, knowing that she needed to get home fast. Then, turning to Bae, she said, "Let's go!" Then had to get back home before her parents realized something was up. She thought about what Bulda's had said about how the spirits would soon turn violent against Elsa, and wondered if she should tell Anna about this. She shook her head. Anna would never be able to handle hearing this. She saw how negatively Anna reacted when she heard Inger say that Elsa was never coming back. It would be foolish to risk it.
Heavy clouds were forming in the air, and Gerda soon heard the crackling of thunder. Then heavy rain began pouring down. Bae shivered due to the coldness of the water, but Gerda was able to handle it, for she was someone who was relatively good at handling the cold. Bae began sneezing and snot came out of his nose. He was desperate to escape the rain so he ran all the more faster. At a later point, when Gerda was about to ask Bae to change direction, he slowed down and pressed his nose against the grass as if he could smell something tasty. Gerda should hear the loud sniffing noises he made as he walked towards the wall of a cliff nearby. Even though he was a horse, he had a dog's sense of smell. He slowly moved towards a portion of the cliff that was covered in vines, and then he galloped towards it. Gerda squealed in fear for she thought they were going to hit the wall of the cave.
Instead, Bae wandered right through the vines, leaving both Bae and Gerda unharmed. It seemed to her that she was now in a cave. The vines must have been blocking the entrance to the cave. "We'll rise here for 30 minutes," she told Bae. Bae frowned in disappointment. "Ok, we'll leave in 35 minutes then," Gerda reluctantly said, while patting Bae on the head. It was dark in the cave, so Gerda tried using her ice magic to light up the cave. The light didn't last, so finally she gave up and lit a lantern instead. Once the lantern was lit, she could see the things in the cave much more clearly. Looking down at the ground, she saw there was a blanket lying down on the ground. On that blanket, there were 3 apples. Bae smiled at the slight of these apples and immediately began gulping them up. "But how did these get here?" Gerda thought. "Maybe someone left them here by mistake."
It didn't take long for Bae to finish the apples, but evidently he was still hungry. He further explored the cave to look for grub, and Gerda reluctantly followed him. It turned out that the cave was long like a tunnel and it had multiple passages. On the ground was a skeleton, and the bony hand of the skeleton was pointed at an empty beer bottle. If Gerda were to guess, she'd assume that the person got lost in the cave due to the cave having multiple passages, in which not all passages led outside. The person must have tried spinning the bottle, hoping to guess which passageway to go through. Gerda picked up the empty bottle and tied it to her waist. Even upon seeing the frightful skeleton, Bae steeled himself and continued walking through the cave.
The cave was like a maze because it would be so easy to get lost if you took a wrong turn. Gerda was starting to smell the faint smell of smoke. Bae could also smell it, and he thought it was the smell of potatoes roasting on a small fire. His mouth was watering. Bae and Gerda walked down a passageway that was surrounded by other passageways. Gerda picked up a stone that was lying on the ground and made a cross-shaped marking on the wall of the passageway that led out of the cave to avoid getting lost.
Arriving at the end of the passageway, she found a wooden door located at the end. And it was wide open. There was a wooden beam on the ground, which Gerda understood to have been used to bar the door. What surprised her most was that there was what appeared to be candlelight coming out from behind the door. Surely that meant there were people behind it. Gerda even heard small whispers coming out from behind the door. Gerda looked in through the door, careful to stay out of sight, and saw a woman in her mid 40's and two men who were beside her. The woman had brown skin and she smoked a pipe. All three of them held shovels in their hands. They were in what appeared to be a manmade chamber, and all three of them were standing beside a coffin that they had just opened. There were words carved onto the walls in the language of the trolls. Gerda understood most of the words that were written on the walls, although some of the words still stumped her. Apart from the coffin that was placed on a platform, the chamber was relatively empty. On that platform, there was also a lantern, which was used to illuminate the chamber.
"Are you sure this is Zech's tomb?" asked a portly man with a moustache to the woman. "Relax, Finn," assured the woman. "I've spent years studying the language of the trolls. I know what is written on the coffin." "But even if Zech's name is written on the coffin," said a thin man with a goatee, "how can you be sure that the embalmed body we see inside this coffin is really Zech's body?" "Because of this map," answered the woman, picking up a papyrus scroll that was in the coffin. "That's how I can be sure, James." "The map to the eternal dagger?" scoffed James. "Fake maps are a dime a dozen, Liz." "Why would someone take the time to build this chamber just to hide a fake coffin and a fake map?" questioned Liz. "You'd be surprised at the lengths some people go through in order to play a prank," answered James. "Considering that there's nothing valuable in this chamber like diamonds, gold, or silver, I'd say that there's a fine chance this could all be a prank." "Not all treasure is silver and gold, James," said Finn, with a look of disapproval on his face. "We could give this map to the Queen. I'm certain she'd reward us greatly."